Let the Games Begin
by wordspank
Summary: A really rich guy has abducted Chris and Stephanie, and stuck them on an island for various reasons. care to r&r?
1. Default Chapter

Let the Games Begin  
R  
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the familiar characters in this story, except for the mad, and really rich guy operating this whole thing.  
A/N: Dreamt this up. Became very hyped out. Conceived something nuts.  
  
Prologue  
  
Stephanie turned the dial of her radio down. *Why am I here on this boring ship? It's not like I'm VIP or something.* She sat down on the bed lazily and looked out the cabin window. *Even Jericho is here.* She shivered and fell back. *And its crazy that he's the only one I've seen here.*  
She turned her head to the clock. It was a couple of hours into the morning, and she wasn't surprised that she hadn't slept yet. Creepy was the only word that came to her head when she came aboard the ship. Fortunately, she discovered her other 'friend' Chris was on the opposite side of the ship, doing God knows what. But at least her problems were quite a distance away.  
The wall phone at the corner of the room rang and she went over to pick it up. *What the hell is going on?*  
"You've got about 5 minutes before you black out and end up somewhere else, so get packing with what ever you think is precious and wait."  
The receiver's tone sounded quietly and Stephanie hung up. *What the HELL is going on?* she asked herself again. Perhaps someone was playing pranks on her, since she was agitated and frightened easily. She took whatever she thought was of value to her anyway: the photo of her family, her cell phone, and her purse. The rest was just junk.  
A couple of minutes later, she grew suspicious of the rather eerie surroundings. Peeking her head out of the door, she realised how deserted this vessel really was. No life at all present on board. Chris was counted as a hunk of useless junk. Within seconds, she felt herself being pulled back and a piece of cloth slapping over her mouth, after which her world turned black.  
  
*** 


	2. Let the Games Begin

Let the Games Begin  
R  
A/N: Sheesh.  
  
Chapter One  
  
*I had the weirdest dream...*  
Stephanie opened her eyes, but she saw black, except for a few little spaces of light peeking through from where she was. *Uh oh, not good.* Her hands felt around, and it seemed like she was confined to somewhere extremely cramped and small, since she was curled up into a fetal position. *I'm in a crate. Why am I in a crate?* She panicked silently and felt around somemore, hoping for something useful. To her surprise, she found something more than useful; a crowbar.  
With slight struggle, she managed to shift the heavy tool in front of her and force the head of it into a space, cranking it backwards with all her might. After a couple of tries, she successfully broke the wood into two, leaving a bigger space. Sand. What was she doing on a beach? She broke her way out of the box to find herself smelling the fresh air of the sea, her feet touching damp sand. But this was no good. Where were her things?  
She noticed that there was some faint footprints in the sand, and she decided to follow it. No way was she going to die here alone. As soon as the prints got deeper she looked up.  
"YOU!" together they yelled in unison, fingers pointed at each other.  
"Is this a joke?" Stephanie asked angrily.  
"If it was, I'd be laughing!" Chris replied, unamused.  
"What the hell are you doing here?" they said together again.  
"Would you let me talk first?" Stephanie demanded. Chris folded his arms and waited. "Okay. What the HELL are we doing here?"  
"How am I supposed to know? And why do you have a crowbar?"  
"Because it was with me when I was in that stupid crate!" Her fingers tightened around it. "There's another crate there, and I am going to open it. If I don't find my stuff there, I'm going to kill you with this, and eat your sorry ass for breakfast, lunch AND dinner!"  
"Take it easy. No need to get cheeky," he said, raising his hands in defense.  
She frustratedly groaned and stomped over to the last remaining unopened crate. *He'd better not be up to something.* The nails came off easily, and she pushed the lid aside. "You're a very lucky man Jericho," she said, finding some sort of relief in her to find he things, as well as some other items.  
"What else did you find?" he asked ignoring her remarks as he made his way to her.  
"Utility knife, blanket, shirt, wallet," she listed, tossing each one behind her.  
"Those are my stuff!" He said and hurried towards the items he had recognised, strung along the sand. Stephanie walked away half-heartedly and sat down near the water.  
*What am I going to do? I'm going to die...* she thought, staring into the cracked frame. *I can't die, not now.*  
Chris saw her running her fingers over the photo. *Can't she ever do anything to help?* He frowned and continued to salvage whatever he could find in the crate. *I can't believe I'm stuck with her for... God knows how long. Not too long, I hope.*  
When he turned, he found her crying, her knees bound to her chest, rocking to and fro. *Not now...*  
"What now?" he said, grumpily sitting next to her with his things in his lap. He didn't feel like watching her cry at this moment anyway.  
"Leave me alone," she muffled, refusing to look up. "We're gonna die anyway."  
"What?" he said. "Who says?"  
"I do." Her head rested on her arms uncomfortably. "At least I am."  
"So because you're the princess, when you say we're gonna die, we're gonna die. We're not going to. Not you, not me. I don't care how much you don't like me, you're going to work that royal butt off with me to survive, whether you like it or not." He scratched the back of his head. "Here," he said, handing her a folded sheet of crisp paper. "I found this at the base of the crate."  
'Dear kids,  
I've seen the way you've interacted on television and realised how much fun it would actually be if I placed you on a dangerous private island of mine. Its forty two days, and I'm sure something interesting's bound to happen. I just can't wait. Let the games begin. Get started! I'm watching.  
~Signed, a gazillionaire'  
Stephanie frowned. "What are we going to do with forty-two boring days? And the island's dangerous. Anything to say?"  
"Let's get started." Chris stood and made his way to the broken crate Stephanie was in.  
Stephanie set her things on the ground away from the water and waited for him to order her around. She didn't know what to do at all.  
"You could help me," Chris said, who put his foot on the crate and tried to take the planks apart one by one. His fingers dug into the spaces and pulled hard, but to no avail.  
Stephanie walked over and used the crowbar like a pro. "Have you no brains enough to notice this?" she said, gritting her teeth as she tried to force the rest of the wooden pieces off. "I can't believe I'm doing this."  
Chris made a face at her. "I can't believe you. You'd better believe all of this."  
"I shall believe all of this."  
  
After all that hard work, they sat down together at where they were before for a break. "You realise we have no shelter," Chris said, searching her face for a reaction.  
"We don't? Oh."  
"Don't expect a villa nearby, then."  
"Can we just find a cave?"  
"Do you think we can find a cave? Does it look like they have caves here?"  
"No," Stephanie replied with a frown. "I'm going to murder the guy who did this."  
"Damn him straight to hell." Chris froze. "I now sound like JR," he added calmly. "...You want to work on that shelter soon?"  
"Whatever." The waters washed past her feet cooly and returned back. Maybe this wasn't so bad after all. She had a sea, probably an ocean to confide in everyday, just to relax. And with Chris by her side---  
What was Chris going to do these forty-two days? That would be INSANE! Whining and bitching and everything else she had to tolerate. Or was that simply her? She found him quite decent so far, surprisingly. Unfortunately, she didn't know exactly how long it would last. Hopefully, he wouldn't be as much a pain as what she made him out to be.  
"Alrighty then," Chris said out of nowhere. "Some help you are."  
"I'm sorry that I hate to be bossed around."  
"I realised that long ago. I have common sense you know."  
"Again, I apologise for assuming the opposite," she said.  
"You're quite... You don't really seem to be able to throw insults anymore, you know that? You've changed."  
"Do you think I really care?" Stephanie frowned and searched in her purse that lay in her lap for something. She pulled out her photo and stared at it expressionlessly. "I miss them. We're never a family anymore."  
"...I can't do anything about it, can I?"  
"You're so... Insensitive. I'm just asking you to listen, that's all." Stephanie frowned. "I wonder why is it so hard for you just to listen. Sometimes you could not be my enemy."  
"That'll be a hard feat, dudette."  
"Anyway, I'm glad that... That I'm here with someone reliable." She hated to admit it, but it was true. She felt that way.  
"I suppose that you're not so bad so far."  
"Then we'll work together," Stephanie said, extending her hand. "We're going, to no matter what, so, I shall call it a truce."  
"Truce." Then they both shook hands.  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
A/N: Merry Christmas! :):P. *hugs and kisses [no pun intended]* 


	3. Making Space

Let the Games Begin  
R, would turn angsty later...  
  
Chapter Two  
  
"How boring," Stephanie chimed with a yawn. She leaned herself against the newly built shelter, of which she admitted that only Chris had contributed in. Out of consideration and politeness, he thought it would be too much work for her.  
Chris didn't find a tool whatsoever, so he did a crazy feat by taking down trees with his whole body. It was possible, but it started to graze against his skin and form cuts and bruises on his back and left arm. However, soon to his dismay and frutration, a note floated down from nowhere and said that there was a small rectangular crate that was going to come to shore, containing a saw and an axe. "Sure teaches you how to be more patient," Stephanie said.  
"Oh, shutup. At least I did something," Chris retorted.  
"What? You were too cocky to ask for help anyway." Stephanie's head lifted. "Hey, I think that's the box they were talking about."  
She was right. A pale coloured crate was floating upon the water, slowly heading towards the shore. "Umm, do I get it, or do you get it?" she asked.  
"I'm in no mood to go fetch," he replied gruffly.  
She gave him a comforting pat on the shoulder. "Okay."  
She cranked open the top with the crowbar expertly, with much experience with it already. "Oh look, they were right. And there's another message." She read it out loud:  
'Ah, I see that you two have been getting along better than I've expected! Here's a couple of things to help you. Also, you might want to consider exploring the place a little. You could find a lovely source of pure, fresh water for your needs! Day One is almost over, there's still 41 more! As for now, I've got to drop by at the spa.  
Yours truly, signed, "Swimmin' in Green"...'  
"Would you believe that! An axe, saw, and water. Thank God we haven't resorted to drinking saltwater yet," Stephanie said, clearly quite delighted with the message.  
"Tell me about it."  
Stephanie looked down at him. "...Who's going to do the exploring? You or---"  
"Gaah, I'll do it," Chris said, grabbing the paper from her and throwing it aside.  
"Alright, Mr Hero, if you're always so grumpy, then I'll go."  
"I said that I'll go!"  
"But you don't want to!"  
"I mean what I say!"  
"Not this time!"  
"Fine, fine. We'll both go together, okay?"  
Stephanie looked at him thoughtfully. "Okay."  
  
***  
  
"Oh geez, I didn't know grass could be this mushy," the brunette said, cringing everytime she took a step in the slightly muddy ground.  
"Do you want to follow me or not?" Chris asked in irritance. He seemed scary when he was angry, so Steph took all her comments back that instant.  
"Alright, alright, I'll shutup now," she said with a frown.  
"Thankyou." Chris continued to lead the way. After sometime, Stephanie spoke again.  
"I think we went the wrong way."  
"What makes you so smart now?"  
"Um..." she said meekly, "Because I saw a waterfall about forty yards away."  
Chris slapped his palm to his forehead. "Why didn't you say so earlier?"  
"Because I said I'd shutup!"  
"Until now?" he sighed defeatedly. "Nevermind. Let's go back..."  
Steph wanted to apologise, but she figured that Chris didn't want to hear her at the moment. But some moments, she couldn't help it. "Jericho, its right there," she pointed. Chris turned around and saw stone. Rock. Glistening water. And then he ran. "HEY! Wait!"  
Chris couldn't help but dive right in. "Great, now you've just contaminated the water with bateria and everything else," she said, with her hands akimbo. But no matter what she said, she couldn't help but smile when she saw Chris swimming around in the water. He did seem like he needed a little happiness for these days. After all, she knew she was giving him a hard time, even on the first day. *Stephanie,* she thought to herself, *its time for you to be independent.*  
She sat on the edge of the rather low ledge and watched him. He looked so happy, it made her want to just...  
"WHY are you sitting there?" he said, this time in a lighter tone. "Come on in!"  
"Nah, its not for me." She plastered a smile on her face. "I'm not in the mood."  
Chris treaded in the water. "Fine, if you'll be that way..." Then he disappeared underwater.  
Suddenly, Steph felt her foot being tugged at, and the next thing she knew, she was in the drink with him.  
She rose to the surface and was sure to reprimand him. "What the HELL did you do THAT for?!"  
"...Fun." He laughed, then dove underwater again. She had a bad feeling about that. He came up behind her, then pushed her straight down. "C'mon, its just water. Does nothing to you."  
"Do you know how deep this thing is?!"  
"Are you afraid that I might drown you or something?"  
"I certainly hope you don't do anything," she said, flipping her hair back with her mouth agape. "Including touching me." She felt his arms coming around her waist and she quickly kicked him away. "I mean it! If you ever do anything, I'll... I'll..."  
"What, beat me with a twig?" She couldn't help but giggle. "No... I'll talk to you all day."  
"Oh please, no. Not that." He backed away, and she smiled to herself. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad spending fourty-two days with him after all...  
"I'm getting out." She brought herself up with her arms and wringed the water out of her clothes.  
"Then I'll get out too. I don't want my entertainer lost."  
"Very funny, ha ha ha."  
"I thought so too," he said, climbing up. "Oh crap. We've still got tons to do. Like makes fires and hunt."  
"Hunt?" she echoed. "You're doing that," she said quickly.  
"I know, I will. Sheesh." Chris leaned his shoulder forward and peered down at his arm, stricken with wounds. "Damn... These hurt now..."  
Steph stepped back on the dirty ground, but was no longer agitated by the uncomfortable feeling. "Who wanted to be insane for half a day and take trees down with his body?"  
"I did," he said innocently, pouting for effect. "Oh, stop that. You look like a gorilla of some sort." She swatted him, in which the look faded away abruptly.  
  
***  
  
Chris gathered wood and dug deep into his brain for some knowledge on how to create a fire. The wood and bow method would take forever, so the only thing that he was left with was stone to stone.  
"Any progress there?" Stephanie questioned, looking at the sky wearily. "It's kind of getting dark."  
"Trying," he answered back distractedly, concentrating to create a spark from the rocks he had in his hands. He had been clashing the two rocks for what seemed to him as an eternity, with no success in the drive. "I didn't know fires were so hard to start."   
Stephanie squatted next to him, holding out her hands. Chris looked clueless.  
"Why not you give me a try?" He handed her the rocks, not believing that she could do it. If he took almost a quarter of a day creating fires and actually still not making any, she'd never be able to.  
Stephanie tried. She rubbed the two stones together first, and struck it three times. Still nothing. "You're not doing it right..." Chris said, wanting to try again, but she ignored him. Her face was masked with concentration, and then she struck them again, sparks flying straight into the dry leaves and twigs. His jaw hung. "How did you...?"  
"Don't underestimate me just because I don't do anything around here... I very much think that your ego's still inflated quite enormously to ask for any help." She walked away, back into the rather comfortable shelter Chris built.  
Baffled, Chris set his hand on the side of the little flame and blew. Before he knew it, they had a strong fire going to keep them both warm, located just a few metres away from their temporary fourty-two day home. Once satisfied, he went into the newly improved shelter he made with the given tools, and breathed a sigh.  
"You know, you don't have to go find food..."  
"And what about your hunger pangs?" Chris asked.  
"I could live with them for today... Besides, you just had a hard first day and you're looking pretty battered up with your cuts and all."  
Chris was glad she was so understanding. At least she had the heart to be considerate at the end of the day. And Chris had to admit that even with her sometimes petulent, non-stop speaking voice, she wasn't going to be all that bad.  
"What are you doing?" he asked, spotting her digging for something in her sand-dotted purse.  
Stephanie continued searching, until she took out her tube of lipstick. She took off the cover and twisted the bottom gently until the rose could be seen, and drew a line on the light-coloured wooden wall of the 'house'. "I'm marking the days that we're here. We're bound to lose count if we remembered by heart."  
"Thoughtful of you, Steph," he said, watching her keep her lipstick. After a moment of silence, Chris spoke up. "Hey, I'm sorry I was harsh on you."  
"Well, did you have PMS or something?" He returned a look. "...It's fine. I knew I was being a pain."  
Chris chuckled. *Pain? In the neck, my ass AND my side.*  
"Hey! That's when you're supposed to say 'you weren't being a pain'..."  
"Okay, you weren't being a pain."  
Stephanie smiled. She wanted so much to hug him, but however, they were on neutral terms. Anything like that would be truly unacceptable. It was too early anyway, being this just the first day. As the sky fell to its midnight blue shade, she had fallen asleep and Chris had watched her peacefully. With what seemed to be the twenty-sixth sigh of the day, he closed his eyes and drifted off into oblivion.  
  
Well, they still HAD fourty-one days left.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
A/N: There's bound to be delays because I'm currently penning down the new chapters and typing out the fourth one of the old but not forgotten story 'I Remember'. Yes, I'm going to post that up soon, hopefully. As for now, I'm going to try and update 'Down the Road' too... Oh, and thanks for reviewing, if you did. :). 


End file.
